The Flow of Time
by renravda
Summary: Semi-AU the year 2070, 71 years after the "incident," Sorata is an ordinary high-school student from an upper middle class family. Then, while late for a date with his girlfriend, a strange old woman gives him an old silver watch. sorata\arashi bad summar
1. chapter 1

The Flow of Time

Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine; I don't own x.  I don't even own this story technically.  It was inspired by a music video that I once saw… I cant remember what it was though…

Sorata studied picture of the girl in his locker before slamming the door.  Finally he could go home.  Everyone had already left several hours before when school was over, but he had to stay afterschool a few hours for tutoring.  Oh well, things could have been worse. At least he's not failing…yet.  Things are actually pretty good right now.  Two weeks ago he finally had the courage to ask out Toriko, the cute girl who sits two seats in front of him.

"Sorata!" a girl called out to him, "Hi!"

"Toriko," smiling, he ran to greet her and to give her a hug. "What are you doing here?  Did you miss me that much? " He asked as they started to walk home.

"You wish!" she laughed, "I just finished running ten laps and I thought I'd see if you were ready to go."  She took out her ponytail to let her soft, light brown flow down to her shoulders.

"You like running don't you?"

"Yeah," she replied.  "I'm not sure why really.  I feel like I owe it to myself to run or something, as if I'm wasting something if I don't push myself to my limit."  When they reached the front of her house she turned to face him.  "I'm going to take shower and change.  I'll see you later."

"Don't forget about our date!" he shouted to her as she disappeared into her house.

"I won't."

Sorata stared at his wrist and carefully paced himself for his date.  He didn't want to be too early; that would make him seem too eager.  He didn't want to be too late; that would make him seem uninterested.  The timing had to be just right.  Without watching where he was going he bumped into something, or rather someone.  An old woman fell to the ground and her groceries were scattered all over the place.  

"Gomen!" he quickly apologized as he helped the old woman up.  He scurried to pick up the remainder of her groceries that hadn't rolled into the streets and gotten crushed by the oncoming traffic.  "I'm really, really sorry.  I wasn't watching where I was going."

"That's quite all right," she said as she looked up to him.  "Oh," she gasped as she saw his face. 

"Huh?" Sorata started wiping his face onto his shirt, "do I have something on my face?"

"No," she kindly smiled.  "Will you be kind enough to help this old woman home?  It's really not that far."  Without any hesitation Sorata gently took her by the arm and walked her down the street.

"By the way, I'm Sorata." He introduced himself to the elderly woman.

"Yes, I know exactly who you are."

"Huh??" Sorata pondered for a second, "…I guess you have to."  He smiled again, "since I grew up in this area.  Everyone here knows everybody else, but…"  He pouted. "How come I don't know who you are?"

"That's because I just moved here recently." The woman smiled, "It's probably because of fate that we met today." Sorata was more confused than ever now.

"Huh?"

"This is it." she said as she stopped in front of a small run-down house.  "Sorata, please wait here for a few minutes." The little old lady ran into the house leaving Sorata standing outside a little confused.  About a minute later she came back and handed him a silver pocket-watch.

"This is nice-looking watch.  It must be really old."  He noticed something strange about it.  "Why is it moving backwards?" 

"It is old.  Over a hundred years old."

"This really is a nice watch. Too bad it's broken." He smiled and held it for her to take back, but she shook her head.

"No, I want you to keep it.  Consider it a present for helping this old lady out"

"I can't do that." He looked at the dilapidated old house, and wondered why she didn't sell the watch for money.  "This watch must be worth a lot of money."  Suddenly he got a brilliant idea, well, brilliant to him anyway.  "How about I fix up this watch, and then I'll bring it back for you."

"The watch is not broken," she tried to convince Sorata, but he wasn't listening.  He had already made up his mind.  "Well, I guess I can't stop you if you have your mind set on fixing it, but there's another favor I want to ask of you."

"Anything."

"When you see her," her voice became low and serious, "tell her that Sora said she's sorry."

"Huh?  Tell who?"

"You'll know when the time comes."

Sorata screamed in frustration as he stared helplessly at the silver watch.  He must have taken it apart and put it back together ten times already.  But no matter what he did, nothing changed. 

"What's wrong with you?" he examine the watch for the millionth time.  "Time doesn't go backwards!"

"Sorata," a voice outside his room called.

"Yes, mom?"

"Go to sleep."

"In a minute mom."  He looked at the clock, one that works normally.  "It is getting kinda late," he said to himself.  "And you," he threatened the watch, "I'll deal with you tomorrow."  He collapsed onto his bed and fell asleep right away.

_"You know, when we walk like this, it feels like we're on a date."_

_"We're only meeting for business."_

_"Well, if you say so…but I'm getting excited.  Having dinner and a movie with you, it feels like a dream.  This is going to be great!"_

Sorata's eyes sprung open.  "My date with Toriko!  I totally forgot!"  He leaped out of bed and picked up the phone.  "No, I can't call her now.  It's the middle of the night.  I'll have to talk to her tomorrow."  He crawled back into bed and fell asleep again. 

_"When we first met, you said that you decided on something, right?" a girl with long black hair in a school uniform asked the man standing next her._

_"Yeah, that's right," He replied, "I've decided that it will be you." _

_"What have you decided?" she asked earnestly._

_The girl's eyes widened in shock at the response that she was given:   "That you are the person I will give my life to."_


	2. chapter 2

Authors note:  Just to clarify things up a little, since its about 70 years after the end of the world incident, most of these characters have been reincarnated, so there names are different.  For example, Sorata's last name is Ariwara now.  For some of the other characters, its really obvious who they were in their last life.  

Warnings:  contains spoilers for the tv show.

"I'm really really really sorry, Toriko," Sorata gazed at her with his puppy-eyes. "I'll make it up to you.  I'll do anything.  What do you want me to do?"  Toriko smiled.

"Well," she said slowly, "I guess I can't stay mad at you.  I mean, you were only trying to help a poor old lady out."  Her eyes narrowed, "but that doesn't mean you're off the hook!  A new movie is coming out today, and I want to see it.  I'll meet you in the theater before the movie starts.  Don't you dare be late." 

"Hehe," Sorata laughed nervously, "I won't be late.  I'll be sure to get there at least an hour early."

"Yeah, you better."

During class, Sorata couldn't focus on anything except for the seat two seats in front of him.  It seemed like she had forgiven him but he still couldn't tell for sure.  For their date later today, he has to do something special for her.  Should he get her flowers?  Maybe, it probably been done to death, but girls love flowers after all, right?  Even from behind she was pretty.  She left her soft hair down today instead of tying it up.

"Ariwara, Sorata!" the teacher shouted.

"Hai!" He responded standing up.

"Please explain the meaning of the verses Kita-san just finished reading."

"Uh….the lines…." Sorata started rambling, "…the lines that were selected, uh, show, I mean, reveal the author's state of mind and good I mean, um, proficient use of diction."

"Ariwara-san, that was a very profound answer."

"Arigatou, Shirokawa-sensei," Sorata beamed.

"Unfortunately, if you hadn't been concentrating on Monou-san so much, you would realize that this is not literature class."  The class laughed while Sorata and Toriko's face turn into a couple of tomatoes.  "You may be seated."  He started to address the rest of the class again, "for those of you who forgot, or just simply wasn't paying attention," the class laughed again.  That last statement directly directed towards Sorata.  He continued, "for the marriage project, you all get to choose your own partners," the class cheered and he continued, "except for Ariwara-san and Monou-san."  The class laughed again.  "Monou-san will be paired up my son, who will be arriving here in Tokyo in a few hours.  His name is Kenichi.  He may seem a little standoffish at first but I'm sure you two will get along."

"Shirokawa-sensei,"  Sorata pouted, "that's not fair."

"And you, Ariwara-san, will be paired with Kita, Ara."  Ara was the girl who sat behind Sorata.  She was one of those rebellious girls who wore the skirt long past her knees.  She rarely smiled, and spoke only when necessary.  "All right, class, the rest of you choose your spouses."  Sorata sighed.  

"Poor Toriko," Sorata said to himself, "she has to be paired up with some guy she doesn't even know.  Wait a second, she's going to be paired up with some guy!"

"Of course she's going to paired off with a guy." A voice behind him reminded him, "this project is supposed to simulate a real marriage."

"I know," Sorata around, "but she's supposed to be paired with me."  Sorata noticed something, "Ne Ara-chan, you have a really familiar face."

"Baka!" she laughed, "we've been in the same class since the first grade."

"No, I don't mean that."  Sorata continued to be lost in deep thought while Ara ignored him.  "Oh yeah, now I remember!"

"What?" she decided to humor him.

"I had a dream about you last night!"

"What am I doing in your dreams for? I have better places to be."

"I vowed to protect you."  The bell rang and saved Ara from having to listen to more of Sorata's craziness.

"Whatever, I'm leaving."

Sorata's tutoring session was cancelled today, and he's got several hours before his date with Toriko. He sat at his desk in his room trying to fix the watch the old lady gave him.  After all he had promised to.  He also remembered that he promised the old lady to tell "her" that "Sora was sorry."  What did it all mean?  Who is "her" and who is Sora?  After about several hours of futile attempts at repairing the watch, he gave up again.  If he wasted more time on it, then he would be late for his date.  And this time, Toriko won't so nice.  "Maybe I'll just pay someone to fix it for me." He looked at the watch again.  It was still going backwards.  He screamed in frustration again.  He took his tormentor and put it in his pocket.  His bedroom was on the first floor of his house, so it was easy to for him to simply jump out of the window to sneak out of the house.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!" Sorata screamed right before the concrete greeted his face.

"Are you ok?" a voice inquired.  Sorata bounced back up.

"Oh I'm fine," he told the man standing next to him, "this hard ground broke my fall."  The man's eyes widened in shock.

"Sorata?" the man's voice was barely audible.

"Yep," Sorata laughed, "that would be me."  

"You're," The man's face brightened up, "you're still alive!  Thank goodness!"

"Of course I'm all right. Its not that bad a fall." He then realized he still doesn't know who the heck this guy was. "Who are you? I haven't seen you around here."

"Huh?"  The man was confused, "you don't remember who I am?"

"Nope."

"Monou Fuuma.  Are you sure you don't remember me?  A couple of months ago, we fought and you were--"

"Monou!  Did you say Monou?" Sorata interrupted.  "Does that mean you're related to Monou Toriko?"

"Huh?"  Fuuma was extremely confused, "uh….no…I don't know who that is."

"Aww," Sorata pouted, "oh well, I better get going before I'm late.  Toriko will furious."  He took a look around, "hmmmm, I think I should paying attention to my surroundings a little more." He started laughing, "other wise one day, I won't recognize anything." 

Fuuma watched Sorata leave and wondered who the strange man was.  He looked exactly like the late Arisugawa Sorata from the ten no ryu, but that Sorata had died under his hands.

Arashi heard a knock and opened the door.  To her surprise Fuuma stood at the doorway.  She hasn't seen him since the incident a couple months ago, and she wanted to keep it that way.  She tried to shut the door, but Fuuma stuck his foot in just in time.  "Arashi-san," he said, "I know I have no right to speak to you, but please," he pleaded, "just give me two minutes."

"Fine," she sighed. The sooner he finishes talking the sooner he'll leave.

"I saw Sorata."

"What?"  Arashi couldn't believe her ears, "what did you just say?"

"Sorata is alive. I saw him a few minutes ago."

"Sorata is alive?"  What kind of sick joke is this?  She glared at Fuuma with disgust.  With one hand she shoved him out of the doorway, and slammed the door in his face.


End file.
